Love Among the Pizza Boxes

“Where do we go now?” I ask, leaning up against the Pizzamobile.
I guess I can leave with Riku because Zermine drove us in her little Jungle Jeep.
Oh that child.
Why did she have to do that?
It’s just not… Not cool. At all. She meets this guy, thinks he’s hot, so she whisks him away to the bathroom so he can ejaculate all over my dress.
Thank you, Zermine.
You rock.
And she embarrassed everyone in the restaurant almost. Anyone who went into the ladies’ room, Riku, me and oh my God that poor janitor.
Riku runs his hands down his face. “Uh… We could... I don’t know.” He shakes his head and sits on the hood of the Pizzamobile.
I exhale loudly. It’s better to be outside- away from the smell of French fries and humiliation.
I really don’t want to go back inside of closed confines.
But I don’t want to stay in the parking lot either.
So I think about places to go where we won’t be inside that isn’t the Chili’s parking lot.
“…You wanna go to a park?” I ask Riku, look up at him.
Riku nods and rolls off the hood. “Yeah. Let’s do that. Uh… Do you want to drive?”
The Pizzamobile? Really? I get to drive?
Cool.
“Sure.” I smile and then go over to the driver’s side and I climb in.
I can’t see over the dash and my feet can’t reach the pedals.
“…How do you adjust this thing…?” I mumble and start fumbling for some controls for the seat.
Riku hasn’t gotten in the car yet. In fact, he’s standing at the drivers’ door. He kneels down and pulls a lever of some sort and the seat inches forward.
“Oh. Thanks.”
Now, up sesame.
“Uh – here.” He opens the back door and comes back with a big, thick book. He holds it out to me. “Sit on that.”
I grab the book.
Great. A booster seat.
I get out of the car and then set the book down in the seat. “The dictionary?” I turn to Riku.
Why does he have Webster’s complete English dictionary?
Riku scratches at the back of his neck. “Yeah... I forgot to return it to the library…”
“That’s cool.”
So then I sit down on the dictionary.
Sorry, Web.
But someone’s gotta drive.
“Oh, yeah. It’s great.” Riku kinda chuckles. Then he closes the door and he gets in on the other side.
Alrighty. So I buckle my seat belt and look over at Riku. “Keys please?”
His nods and places the car keys in my hand. “There you go.”
I flash a quick smile at him and I stick the keys in the ignition, turn it, and the Pizzamobile rumbles to life.
…
So we’re at the park now and Riku and I are just sorta standing around the car.
Riku sits on the hood of the car again. “So… How is work…?” He sounds uncertain about his own question.
What? Work?
Work seems pretty far off right now considering today’s… Adventure.
“Huh? Fine. Good. You?”
Work indeed sounds very trivial.
Riku shrugs. “It’s pretty good. There’s a sliver of promise that I might be getting a promotion – possibly.”
Promotions are good.
But words like ‘might’ and ‘possibly’ aren’t nice words.
I don’t like those words.
I bob my head. “That’s good. Good for you.”
He bobs his head, too. “Thanks.”
I half-smile and hop up on the hood of the Pizzamobile.
Why is the awkwardness back?
I thought that we might’ve been past this.
Because…Well.
Y’know.
I love him.
So now I guess what I have to do is just wait for that tension to go away.
I pat the car hood. “C’mon.”
So Riku scoots himself farther up the hood.
Then I just watch the people in the park, my shoulders slumped over.
I sigh after a while. “…Riku?”
He looks up at me from his feet. “Yeah?”
“You ever thought about going to college?”
Because I have.
And I’m going this fall.
“College?” Riku purses his lips for a second. Then he lets out a puff of air that he was apparently holding. “Uh, sort of.”
“Sort of?” I lean back so that most of my back is on the windshield. I look over at Riku.
He looks down at me and shrugs. “Well, yeah, I’ve thought about it. But I don’t know what I’d major in.” He shrugs again.
“Well. You could always be major-less. You know, an undefined major.”
“I guess.” He pauses for a second to look at his feet again. Then his attention is back on me. “What about you?”
“Uh…Yeah.” I nod. “I’m going this fall.” I keep on nodding because I can’t stop.
“Oh, really?” Riku nods, too. “That’s cool. To be an astronomer, I assume?”
“No.”
Actually, I don’t know what I want to do. I never have.
I like astronomy.
But it’s not something I want to do forever.
And then I shrug and look at the sky.
It’s slightly overcast but pretty humid still.
“Hm,” Riku mumbles in response beside me.
“…I don’t know what I want.”
To do that is.
Because I know what I want right now.
Riku shrugs some more and shakes his head. “That’s okay. You don’t have to know.”
But I do know.
I want him.
“Yeah…” And then-hesitantly for reasons unknown- I set my hand on top of his.
My hand tingles. It kinda makes me smile.
Riku smiles down at my hand, and turns his hand over so he can intertwine his fingers with mine.
I sigh again.
This is the way it’s supposed to be.
So then I smile slightly at Riku.
He looks up and smiles right back.
Ba-bump.
Ba-bump.
Stupid little red thing.
Shut up, he might hear you.